visibility. attract rich parents who are attracted to markers of status but aren't able to measure scholarly productivity (which is not to say that heckman and deaton are not productive - they are, especially for their age - but not the same as a young turk)

USC is a rising department, whether you like it or not. They hired well and increased their research output every year. Those old people mentioned earlier still publish better than 99% of everybody on this website. They also place relatively well year after year, much better than other departments ranked similarly. Their recent graduates over the past 5-6 years have also done really well in terms of publications too. There is not a single one who got a job in academia then turned out to be a lemon! I'm not saying they are top 10 or anything like that, but they do churn out good people and good research.